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SOUTHERN PACIFIC 



Agents, Southern Pacific-Sunset Route 

... „ f R. O. BEAN Traveling Passenger Agent 

Atlanta, Ga j I2I p ea chtree Street 

„ u . __, ) WM. B. JOHNSON District Passenger Agent 

Baltimore, Md ^ 2Q w Baltimore Street 

(O. P. BARTLETT General Agent 

Birmingham, Ala. . . . { IQ0I First Avenue 

) J. H. GLYNN New England Agent 

Boston, Mass \ I2 Milk Street 

„ _ , __ „ f F. T. BROOKS District Passenger Agent 

Buffalo, N. Y | ri Swan Street 

T11 ( W. G. NEIMYER General Agent 

Chicago, 111 \ ?3 w j ac kson Boulevard 

. _. { W. H. CONNOR General Agent 

Cincinnati, O | S3 Fourth Avenue East 

_, . . - /GEO. B. HILD General Agent 

Cleveland, O \ 305 Williamson Bldg. 

^ _ , ( WM. K. McALLISTER General Agent 

Denver, Colo [ 3I3 Rai i wav Exchange Bldg. 

_. A , „. . ( E. A. MACON General Agent 

Detroit, Mich [ „ Fort Street 

_ . ( A. E. WOODELL General Agent 

Havana, Cuba [ 4Q Obispo Street 

fT. J. ANDERSON General Passenger Agent 

Houston, Texas \ JOSEPH HELLEN . . . . Asst. Gen'l Pass'r Agent 

__ «. x „ f H. G. KAILL General Agent 

Kansas City, Mo. . . . \ 00I Walnut Street 

T , _,, , T | A. G. LITTLE Division Passenger Agent 

Lake Charles, La. ... j Majestic Hotel 

_ , (GROVE KETCHUM. .District Passenger Agent 

Los Angeles, Cal. . . . \ 6o? s> Spring Street 

/THEO. ENSIGN, City Passenger and Ticket Agt. 

( 227 St. Charles Street 

New Orleans, La.. . { J- F - TFRREL 1 L ' ■ ■ w Traveling Passenger Agent 

Metropolitan Bank Bldg. 

. J. BOLE Passenger Agent 

227 St. Charles Street 
New York NY f L. H. NUTTING, General Eastern Pass'r Agent 

" \ 1 and 366 and 1158 Broadway 

Philadelphia, Pa.. . . | R - J- SMITH .. District Passenger Agent 

I 632 Chestnut Street 

Pittsburgh, Pa ( G - G - HERRI Np • • c General Agent 

( 539 Smithfield Street 

San Francisco, Cal. . | P - K " G0 * D °?i General Agent 

I 32 Powell Street 

St. Louis, Mo ( A - J' DUTCHER . . General Agent 

••'•• \ 315-17 N. Ninth Street 

Washington, D. C. . . ( A " J- POSTON . General Agent Washington 

Sunset Route, 905 F. St., N. W. 

J. H. R. PARSONS, General Passenger Agent, 

M. L. & T. R. R. & S. S. CO. and L. W. R. R Co. 

NEW ORLEANS 



WINTER IN 
NEW ORLEANS 



SEASON 1912-1913 



ISSUED BY 

General Passenger Department 

Southerm Pacific-Sunset Route 
New Orleans, La. 






NEW ORLEANS 

The Winter Capital of America 




CITY with a history teeming with rare 
romance, and a touch of European medi- 
evalism found in no other place in 
America; with an individuality all its 
own, and a beauty in architecture and 
general prospect that impresses the 
stranger from the first — New Orleans 
holds a unique place among the greater 
metropolitan centers of the Western 
Hemisphere and no traveler may count 
his education, as far as traveling is concerned, complete 
until he has seen New Orleans. 

New Orleans has many things to recommend itself to the 
tourist. In the first place, it is a modern city with every 
convenience and improvement — a part of the progressive 
twentieth century. It has magnificent hotels with charges 
graded to meet any purse; its restaurants rank among the 
finest in the world; it has smooth-paved streets, inviting 
driveways and beautiful parks, and what is generally con- 
ceded to be the most up-to-date street car system in the 
country. 

These things, so a part of the present civilization, repre- 
sent its modern side and place it, as it were, in favorable 
comparison with other large cities; but its history, its romance, 
its old French Quarter so close in its resemblance to cities 
in the South of France, its very atmosphere of a by-gone 
day, constitute its individuality and make it unique and 
without parallel. 

But one of the City BeautifuTs greatest recommendations 
to the traveler, especially in the winter months when the 
North is under its blanket of snow and ice, is its climate — 
as nearly ideal as it is possible to find. There are cold days, 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 



yes, but they are not the days that freeze the ears, nip the 
nose and inflict other bodily woes upon those exposed to 
the weather; they are days that brace one up, make one 
appreciate the joy of living, and real frigid spells with ice or 
sleet come but rarely, and when they do come they quickly 
pass, giving place to the balmy kiss of the temperate, 
generous sun. 

Golf, tennis, polo, base-ball, racquet and all other field 
sports are pastimes throughout the winter, and the out-door 
season passes in the same gay and happy whirl that the 
opera, theatre and social season enjoys. 

The summer in New Orleans is almost on a par with the 
winter in New Orleans, with its temperate days and cool 
nights. While the late autumn and winter thermometer 
ambles around the fifties, with infrequent falls to the forties, 
the summer readings are generally found well within the eight- 
ies. There are occasional days when the mercury plays 
tag in the lower nineties, but only once in its history has the 
New Orleans thermometer recorded the one-hundred mark, 
and that was for a July day many years ago. 

During the summer of 191 2, when people were dropping 
like the proverbial flies from the awful heat in the Northern 
cities, New Orleans was enjoying weather that seemed to 
have a tinge of fall in it. The days, even in the sun, were 
easily bearable, and at night, for comfort's sake, the sleeper 
would provide himself with light covering. Life as a whole 
was enjoyable and the splendid season was but a repetition 
of a condition that may be looked for annually. 

New Orleans is easy of access from all parts of the 
country, the great trunk lines reaching the city from all 
directions. The Southern Pacific connects this Southern 
metropolis by rail with the entire West, and a palatial line 
of ocean steamships plies between there and New York and 
Havana. 

In front of New Orleans flows the mighty Mississippi, 
one of the greatest of all rivers and, lining the swirling, rush- 
ing stream, are miles and miles of costly docks and great 
steel sheds. At these docks moor ships from all parts of the 
world — ships flying the flags of maritime nations large and 
small. 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 



From the snake-like twisting of the river, requiring 
that the docks and the streets lying behind it describe wide 
half-circles, New Orleans gains her famous sobriquet — that 
of "The Crescent City." When the visitor goes some after- 
noon for a delightful ride on one of the excursion boats, he 
will readily note the crescent formation of the city. 

Volumes could be written of New Orleans and the 
many attractions the stranger finds within its gates. The 
architectural uniqueness of the buildings; its shady parks, 
wood girded, and reminding one of the haunts of satyrs and 
nymphs; its inviting driveways, and its unusual historical 
associations, are features that appeal to all classes of travelers; 
and to complete the list of valuable assets might be mentioned 
the up-to-date and modern theatres, where the best of the 
road companies appear; the big vaudeville and burlesque 
houses, and the world's famous French Opera House with a 
company of artists recruited from the talented troupes in 
Europe. 

In the summer the amusement lovers find their recrea- 
tion at charming tree-shaded resorts on the shores of Lake 
Pontchartrain, where all sorts of out-door attractions are 
offered and capable singers present comic opera-gems of the 
olden time and the latest musical hits. In fact, all the year 
round pleasure and mirth hold full sway and time never 
hangs heavy on anybody's hands. 

Good health is always a necessary constituent to full 
comfort, and when one is in search of good health, one need 
go no further than New Orleans. The city ranks among the 
very healthiest in the United States. Its death rate is the 
lowest for a city of its size and population and each year 
health conditions seem to improve and become better. 

During the past decade New Orleans has undergone a 
metamorphosis, as it were; from an old-fashioned city it is now 
a modern metropolis, with a sewerage and water system that 
classes with the first in the country. Excellent water and 
thorough drainage help in the making of ideal health con- 
ditions, and New Orleans is indeed fortunate in having had 
the skill of the best engineers exercised in the construction 
of its system. As a result of this system several months 
ago the National Board of Fire Underwriters gave the city 
a first class rating for the congested-area district. 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 



New Orleans is the only place in the world where the 
sun rises in the West and sets in the East ; that is, according 
to appearances, and this strange condition is brought about 
by the city following the river's many and peculiar turnings 
for miles. When one gets up with the lark he sees the great 
red orb of day slowly rising from behind Algiers, which is on 
the river's west bank, and in the evening he sees old Sol go- 
ing to bed in the sapphire depths of Lake Pontchartrain in 
the rear of the city on the river's east bank. This condition 
however is easily accounted for with the explanation that 
for several miles in front of New Orleans .the river flows from 
South to North. 

The beauties, the uniqueness, the originality of the old 
Creole city have been epitomized, and it would not be amiss 
now to briefly sum up a few of the more spectacular and 
thrilling of the out-door pastimes to be enjoyed in the country 
lying close to New Orleans. 

These are hunting and fishing. There is big game in 
this section of the country every winter, and the Nimrod 
who wants to chance it with bear or wolf will find Bruin 
and his shaggy brother waiting for him in the woods of 
Tensas. Deer are plentiful and in the open season some 
fine prizes are bagged by huntsmen. 

Fishing is popular with everybody in N[ew Orleans and 
the vicinity, and the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and the 
wind-swept lagoons and bays of the picturesque Barataria 
section yield to the anglers every description of the finny 
tribe from the man eating shark to the toothsome trout. 

The stranger's first impression when walking the city's 
streets is of something different. He appreciates of course 
that he is in a great and bustling city, teeming with every 
activity, part of the nation's progress, but he catches glimpses 
of side streets, like narrow arteries between their tall, weather 
stained, quaint old buildings that seem to have been taken 
up bodily from the time worn precincts of some venerable- 
European city. It is in the "Vieux Carre" that this impressii in 
is the strongest and where the atmosphere is so distinctly 
European that one forgets for the time that he is in America. 




Royal Street — Modern Entrance to the "Vieux Carre" 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS n 



THE VIEUX CARRE 

The "Vieux Carre de la Ville" is the old city; that is 
to say, the site comprised within the walls of the city ordered, 
built as the capital of Louisiana, in 1718. The boundaries 
are Canal Street on the South, Esplanade Avenue on the 
North, Rampart Street on the West, and North Peters 
Street and a portion of the river on the East. The "Vieux 
Carre" was laid out by the engineers, La Tour and Pauger, 
in 1720, two years after Bienville had given up the idea of 
making Biloxi, Miss., on the Gulf Coast, the capital of 
Louisiana and sought convenient location far up the mouth 
of the great river where safety from the forays of English 
pirates would be assured. New Orleans was confined with- 
in these narrow limits until early in the nineteenth century, 
when it began to broaden out, and the great plantation which 
covered the section now occupied by the St. Charles Hotel, 
the Hennen Building, the Metropolitan Building, the Whitney- 
Central Building, the Grunewald Hotel, the Canal Louisiana 
Building, the Perrin Building, the De Soto Hotel, and other 
of the tallest sky scrapers of the down town district, was 
cut up into lots and small squares and soon became known 
as the English or American city. 

As the visitor wanders through Royal, Dauphine and 
Bourbon streets, and other thoroughfares of the "Vieux Carre," 
he notices a style of architecture with which he is entirely 
unfamiliar unless he has spent some of his time in the cities 
and towns of France and Spain. 

Sandwiched in between the old houses are modern 
dwellings, partaking altogether of the twentieth century 
style, and these later day houses serve to emphasize the dis- 
tinctive features of the ancient structures. Between the 
years of 1830 and 1837 New Orleans enjoyed an era of great 
prosperity and in their enthusiasm to keep abreast of the 
times the people tore down many of the buildings erected 
after the second great fire of 1794 and replaced them with 
modern structures. These houses, which were modem in 1837, 
are still standing for the most part to-day and are in use, 
either as stores or tenemenl dwellings. The district has 
undergone very little alteration or change since the Civil 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 13 



War, save in the upper portion where a whole square of 
ancient Spanish buildings was torn down to make room 
for the new $3,000,000 Civil District Court and public office 
building. This square is bounded by Chartres, Royal, Conti 
and St. Louis streets. 

When one goes to see the "Vieux Carre" it is better for 
him to walk, as the points of interest are so numerous and 
so close together that whirling by in an automobile, or even 
following a more sedate course in an open carriage, he will 
miss much that he would otherwise see were he on foot 
and taking his time. 

Canal Street, the upper boundary of the "Vieux Carre," 
is the city's principal business thoroughfare. It is one of 
the widest streets in any American city, and has a neutral 
ground in the center upon which the car tracks are laid. It 
is lined on either side by buildings, some of them new and 
modern, and most of them of the Ante-Bellum days. This 
street contains great stores of all description and is one of 
the important business marts for the retail trade in the United 
States. Canal Street separates the old or French City from 
the new or American City, and back in the eighteenth cen- 
tury it was known as "terre commune," and was simply a 
broad open space intervening between the southern wall of 
the "Vieux Carre," and the lower limits of Bienville Planta- 
tion, afterwards the Jesuits. The "terre commune" in that 
day was cut in the center by a canal which emptied into 
the river. This canal, when the city's wall was first built, was 
part of the moat, after the European military plan of pro- 
tecting defense. The mouth of the canal, or bayou running 
through the plaza, was closed in 1795 by the construction 
of Fort St. Louis. Tin. canal was filled up in 1838 as far 
back as Claiborne Street but the entire stretch was not closed 
until 187.S. 

In 1838 the plan was conceived to erect the statues of 
famous Americans on either side of the canal as far back 
as Rampart Street, but only one was placed, that of Henry 
Clay, which stood for so many years in the neutral ground 
where St. Charles and Royal streets meet. 

The Clay Statue was long a landmark in the city. It 
was standing there when the Federals took possession of 




Liberty Place and Monument, Canal Street 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 15 



New Orleans, and General Butler, the Union commander, 
had chiseled on the base Henry Clay's denunciation of 
slavery. It was at the Clay Monument that the mobs met 
on the morning of March 14, 1891, and marched on the 
Parish Prison to wreak summary vengeance on the Italians 
accused of the Mafia plot which had as its bloody consum- 
mation the murder of David Hennessey, the chief of police, 
who had brought to justice Esposito, the Sicilian brigand, 
and whose operations in Little Italy — the name by which 
the Italian Colony was known — had put a damper on crime 
and bloodshed. The march of the mob to the Parish Prison 
is a well remembered event in New Orleans. The jail was 
stormed, eleven of the accused were shot to death and two 
dragged into the streets and given over to the infuriated 
thousands on the outside to be hanged "a la lanterne" as 
in the dark days of the French Revolution. 

The Clay Monument was removed from Canal Street 
in the late nineties to Lafayette Square. A new base was 
used — a base of stone — upon which the inscription of Gen- 
eral Butler is missing. 

At the very head of Canal Street and on the southeast 
corner of the "Vieux Carre" stands a stone obelisk, which 
reminds one of Cleopatra's Needle in New York City. This 
obelisk is known as Liberty Monument and the little plot 
it adorns is Liberty Place. This monument was erected in 
1 89 1 as a lasting memorial to the citizens killed in the battle of 
September 14, 1874. The battle of September 14 was, in a 
measure, an armed revolt against what was known as the Black 
Republican, or Carpet Bag Government. The citizens gained a 
signal victory and routed the Metropolitan Police. After 
the battle United States troops held the city under Martial 
Law. The names of the twenty-four citizens killed in the 
battle are inscribed on the base of the obelisk. 

A square from Liberty Place, out Canal Street, toward 
the Lake, and on the "Vieux Carre" side of the thoroughfare, 
stands the Customhouse, one of the most substantial build- 
ings of its kind in the world. It is of solid granite and occupies 
the site of Old Fort St. Louis. This structure was started 
in 1848 under the direction of P. G. T. Beauregard, at that 
time major of engineers in the United States Army, but 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 17 



later in his career, one of the famous generals of the Con- 
federacy. Henry Clay laid the cornerstone and work was 
continued until the outbreak of the Civil War. It was not 
until 1 88 1 that the structure was finally finished. It fills 
an entire square, is five stories high and has a marble hall, 
fronted by a marble stairway, that is one of the architec- 
tural gems among the nation's public buildings. 

In Canal Street, between Royal and Bourbon streets, were 
erected tlie Touro Buildings early in the last century. The 
buildings took their name from their owner, one of the lead- 
ing Jewish philanthropists of his time. A few of these 
buildings are still standing, but for the most part the block 
is taken up by modern buildings. At the intersection of 
Canal and Bourbon streets stood Christ Episcopal Church, 
the first Protestant house of worship in New Orleans. Touro 
bought the building in 1835 and tore it down erecting in 
its place a Synagogue known as Congregation Dispersed of 
Judah. As monuments to Touro's philanthropy, New 
Orleans of to-day boasts of the Touro Infirmary, a modern 
hospital, Touro-Shakespeare Alms House and Touro 
Synagogue. 

Having skirted the southern boundary line of the "Yieux 
Carre" the stranger enters the real historic part of the famous 
section, and taking Royal Street from Canal he first encoun- 
ters a cow of old-style brick buildings built by Touro. Just 
on the spot now taken up by the Royal Street entrance of the 
Cosmopolitan Hotel, stood in former years a four-story brick 
dwelling house of French appearance. This was the residence 
of Dr. Antommarchi, the physician to Napoleon Bonaparte, 
Emperor of the French. Antommarchi was a practising 
physician in New Orleans for many years after the tragedy 
of Waterloo. Adjoining this site is Old 127 Royal Street, 
where insurgents of the Radical State Legislature held a 
spirited session in reconstruction times. The Radicals were 
expelled by the governor's police and a sensational riot 
followed. 

< )n the other side of Royal Street, stands the old Mer- 
chants Exchange, once used as United States Court Building. 
In this b tilling Walker, the filibuster, who was afterwards 
executed in Central America for leading a revolution, was 




Old Spanish Courtyard — in the "Vieux Carre' 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 19 



tried and acquitted on the charge of violating the neutrality- 
laws. This was in 1858. For many years the place was 
used as a gambling house. 

Royal Street on either side has many curio stores 
where relics of the old Colonial Days are offered for sale 
by vendors as ancient looking as their wares. 

Royal Street, at the intersection of Conti, was once the 
banking center of New Orleans. A bank was located at each 
corner and two of these buildings, yellow with age, have sur- 
vived the weight of a century and still stand as reminders 
of the past. Further down the street, at 417 Royal, is a build- 
ing which was erected in 1816 by the Louisiana Bank Com- 
pany. This building was built partly in Moresque and 
partly in Spanish style and is to-day tenanted by several 
families in upper floors, while the lower floor is taken up by 
a curio shop. This house won its greatest fame through 
being the home of Morphy, the world's greatest chess player. 
Morphy died suddenly in the bath tub in this house in 1884. 
The place has one of the most picturesque courtyards in a 
city which boasts of many T beautiful courtyards. 

Opposite the Morphy home stands the splendid new court- 
house which has taken the place of an entire block of old 
buildings. Among the buildings destroyed was the home 
of Mrs. T. E. Davis (M. E. M. Davis), the well-known south- 
ern poet and novelist. 

The next point of interest is the Hotel Royal, first known 
as the St. Louis Hotel. It was erected in the early thirties 
and for many years was the leading hotel of the South, later 
becoming the Capital Building and again assuming its first 
character of hotel. The building is now falling into ruins 
and is occupied by poor families. Like many other venerable 
buildings in the city of ancient houses, the Hotel Royal has 
its weird ghost story. Henry Clay was entertained in the 
Hotel Royal in 1843, and the supper alone, which was served 
on gold plates, cost $20,000. In the rotunda of the hotel is 
the old slave block where negroes were auctioned to the 
highest bidder in the Ante-Bellum days. 

The first sky scraper of the south stands at the upper 
river corner of St. Peter and Royal streets. This place was 
erected in 1809 and at the time was considered a marvel for 




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WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 21 



heighth, overtopping all the surrounding structures as a 
giant overtops a dwarf. This building is known as "Seiur 
George's House" because it is described in Cable's story 
of that name. 

Just a few steps further down Royal Street the sight- 
seer comes to Orleans Street and encounters a large weather- 
stained brick building occupied by the Sisters of the Holy 
Family. This building was originally the Orleans Theatre, 
built in 181 7. In this theatre appeared Lola Montez and other 
famous stars, and the French Opera, so a part of New Orleans, 
it might be said, had its birth there. The theatre was later 
the meeting place of the elite of the city, but in 1835 it became 
the scene of the famous "Quadroon Balls." The building 
was purchased in 1881 by the Sisters of the Holy Family, 
an order organized in 1835 by Abbe Rouselon, of colored 
women, for work among the quadroons, whose attendance at 
the masques had given them their evil repute. The sisters 
still show visitors to the place the famous dancing floor of 
cypress, three inches thick, said to have been the finest floor 
of its kind in the world. 

Just a block below, at St. Ann and Royal streets, stood 
the "Cafe des Exiles," where many of the emigrees from 
France during the Red Terror, and later fugitives from the 
negro uprising in San Domingo, gathered to discuss the past 
over their cognac. In Dumaine Street, just off Royal, stands 
an old colonial house, with queer tiled roof, celebrated in 
song and story and popularly known as "Madame John's 
Legacy." Just at the corner of Royal Street, and close to 
the old building, is another colonial house, the residence of 
Mme. Poree, where the prominent Creole ladies gathered 
to wave farewell to General Jackson's troops as they marched 
out to fight the British under Pakenham. At the upper 
river corner of Hospital and Royal streets is found the 
"Haunted House," perhaps the most talked of haunted house 
in America. It was built in 1813 and was the city home of 
M. and Mme. Lalaurie. In this house the Marquis de 
Lafayette was entertained at a splendid fete in 1825 and 
Napoleon's brother was also a guest there. In 1834 the 
building caught fire and the people entering to extinguish 
the flames made a horrible discovery. The attic was a 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 23 



veritable Chamber of Horrors, a Torture Chamber after the 
approved mediaeval pattern. Negro slaves were found 
badly mutilated from the engines of torment with which the 
vaulted room was filled. The slaves were chained to the 
wall and one of them was embraced in spiked iron bands 
much after the order of the Scavengers Daughter, a part of 
the question system in the Tower of London. The mob 
wrecked the house and Mme. Lalaurie, then a widow, fled 
to France, where it is said she dedicated her life to charity, 
to be finally killed in a boar hunt in the forest of Versailles. 
The ghosts of the murdered slaves are said to haunt the 
building and popular legend has it that, in the dark of night, 
the sound of clanking chains and agonized shrieks come 
from the attic where so much blood was shed to glut the 
insane desire of a refined woman to witness human suffering. 
The Haunted House is a point of interest that no visitor to 
New Orleans can well afford to miss. 

In Royal Street at 527 stands one of the most interesting 
of the city's old houses. The building is fronted by a Moorish 
archway, flanked by cannon, and beyond the archway is a 
great courtyard, in which a fountain plays and orange trees 
nod their heads to the breeze. This building was built by 
Gov. Miro in 1784 and is to-day much as it was in the 
past. The place was used as the Commanderia, or head- 
quarters of the Spanish Mountain Police. 

The city residence of De Marigny stood at Esplanade 
Avenue, a block or two from Royal, toward the river, and 
in this old mansion, long since torn down to make way for 
the street railway company's power-house, was the scene of 
a brilliant entertainment to Louis Philippe, afterwards King 
of France. 

Chartres Street is one of the most interesting of all the 
old city's highways and up to 1838 it was the principal 
business thoroughfare of New Orleans. At Chartres and 
Esplanade was the site of old Fort San Carlos, erected by 
Governor Carondelet in 1792. It was surrounded by a deep 
moat, and from the ramparts of the Fort General Jackson 
reviewed his little army with which he shattered the ranks 
of the British veterans of the Peninsular war at Chalmette. 
The fort was dismantled in 1821 and a few years later the 




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WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 25 



United States Mint, which still stands, was built on its space. 

In the block from Hospital to Barracks streets, just 
above the mint, was located the French military barracks 
erected by Governor Kerlerec in 1758 to accommodate the 
troops forced to evacuate Fort Duquesne by General Wash- 
ington during the French and Indian War. 

In the barracks yard in 1764 was enacted a gruesome 
tragedy under legal warrant which savored of the Place de 
Greve, or Monfaucon, of Paris. The murderers of Col. Roux, 
commandant of Cat Island, were the victims of the tragedy. 
The culprits were executed in a most horrible manner, two 
being broken on the wheel, and the other, the ringleader 
in the plot, being nailed alive in his coffin and sawn asunder 
by negro slaves. The wheel was the common mode of execu- 
tion for certain classes of criminals, the French custom being 
followed in the colony, and for a long period the wheel, and 
the iron bar used by the executioner in crushing the male- 
factor's limbs, were to be seen in the quarter. 

The upper part of the next square is taken up by the 
Church of St. Mary Archbishopric and the Archiepiscopal 
Palace. The Archiepiscopal Palace is the oldest building 
in the Mississippi Valley and was erected in 1727. The 
seminary connected with the Palace was built during the 
early part of the last century on the site of a chapel erected 
in 1787 by Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas for the Ursulines 
nuns. The Church of St. Mary was built in 1846 and one 
of the windows near the altar is decorated with a picture in 
colors representing the Battle of New Orleans. A priest is 
in charge of the Palace and it is always his pleasure to show 
visitors around. The old palace is full of valuable relics, one 
a clock made in Paris in 1632. 

Across the street from the Archiepiscopal Palace is 
another of the city's venerable houses, a link with the olden 
time. It has a broad portico, supported by Ionic columns, 
and is perhaps the only house of its kind still standing. 
In this house Paul Morphy, the world's greatest chess-player, 
was born and it was later the residence of General Beauregard, 
the distinguished soldier, who with General Johnston directed 
the Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh. The house 
is to-day the home of Sicilian wine merchants, and a few years 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 27 



ago a desperate Mafia battle was fought in the courtyard, 
a battle in which four men were killed. 

At Dumaine and Chartres streets is one of the rare sights 
of Colonial New Orleans. It is a Spanish tile-roofed house, 
built in the Eighteenth Century, and was once a tavern 
where the soldiers of fortune and the up-river voygeurs 
met to plan a raid on the Sun Worshipping Natchez Indians. 

The old Cafe des Refuges is situated half a square 
up Chartres Street and the place is full of historic memories. 
It was here that the famous cordial known as "Le Petit 
Gouave" was brewed for the first time. General Humbert, 
one of Napoleon's soldiers, made this tavern his headquarters 
during his declining years. The ancient Hotel de la Marine 
faces the Cafe des Refuges. The hotel was the rendezvous 
of pirates and buccaneers in the old days and during the 
Know-Nothing riots of 1857 scores of Italians were cornered 
in the place by the mob and butchered to a man. Vendetta 
Alley runs in the rear of the hotel, and it obtained its terrible 
name from the Mafia murders committed in the narrow arched 
passageway. 

Lafitte Brothers' blacksmith shop stood at St. Philip 
and Chartres streets. The Lafittes, Jean and Pierre, were 
the last of the great pirates and had their stronghold out in 
the wild Barataria country on a beautiful strip of land washed 
by the surf of the Gulf known as Grand Isle. The Lafittes 
obtained a pardon by rendering valuable assistance to Gen- 
eral Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. In Dumaine 
Street, near the Lafitte blacksmith shop, the Royal ware- 
houses were built in 1728. 

Many stirring stories are still told of the daring forays 
and raids of the buccaneers by descendants of the very men 
who served under the pirate chiefs. On Grand Isle, which is 
within easy reach of New Orleans, the tourist encounters a 
strange population — a population made up of French, Portu- 
guese, Spanish, Filipinos, Chinese and the true type of Creole. 
Most of these people are the grandchildren, or the great 
grandchildren, of Lafitte' s picaroons, and there are family 
traditions that ring with the booming of cannon and the 
clashing of short arms, and compare with the darkest legends 
of mediaeval times. The Lafittes were long popular heroes 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 29 



in the old city and as they carried letters of marque from the 
Republic of Carthegena, they were considered privateers, 
with the privilege of preying on ships flying the English flag, 
by those who defended them. 

There is an old house in Chartres Street, facing the 
St. Louis Hotel, where, according to popular but not authen- 
ticated story, Jean and Pierre Lafitte met General Andrew 
Jackson one cold winter night late in 18 14 and tendered 
him their swords for service in the campaign that was being 
planned against the British. Just at the corner from the 
housa — to be exact, at the intersection of St. Louis Street — is 
an old-fashioned structure, savoring of colonial times, where 
Pierre Maspero had his cafe. It was in this cafe that 
General Jackson planned the defense of New Orleans and at 
the conference Jean Lafitte, it is said, was in attendance. 

The St. Louis Cathedral ranks as one of the best known 
churches in the United States. The site was selected by 
Bienville for a cathedral when the city was laid out in 1718, 
but it was not until 1724 that the first brick church was 
built. The church was destroyed in the fire of 1788 and in 
1794 the present structure was built by Don Almonaster, 
previously mentioned as the donor of a chapel to the Ursulines 
nuns. The church was repaired and added to from time to 
time and is to-day firm and substantial. Don Almonaster 
is buried in a crypt under the altar. Other distinguished 
Frenchmen and Spaniards rest in the crypt and the slabs 
bearing the names of the dead are plainly to be seen in front 
of the altar rail. In the rear of the cathedral is a small gar- 
den in which many duels were fought in colonial times. 
One of the interesting personages connected with the history 
of the cathedral is Padre Antonio de Sedilla, of Toledo, 
Spain. He was connected with the Holy Office in Spain and 
came to New Orleans in 1779 to establish the Inquisition, but 
Miro, the Governor of the Colony, expelled him. He returned 
in 1 78 1 and became priest of the first brick church 
which stood on the cathedral's site, the church which was 
destroyed by fire in 1788. Pere Antonio's portrait still hangs 
in the rector's parlor at the cathedral. 

The Cabildo is next to the cathedral, separated from 
it by Orleans Alley. The building was erected by Don 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 31 



Almonaster in 1795 and its history reads like a romance. The 
Cabildo was the old Spanish court-house in the colonial 
days and some of the implements of torture allowed by the 
criminal code of the time, in the question ordinary and extra- 
ordinary were known to exist, several years ago. There were 
many stirring dramas enacted in this building, but the only 
relic of mediaeval justice still preserved in the building is the 
heavy set of iron bound stocks. The transfer of Louisiana 
from Spain to France and from France to the United States 
took place in this building, and the spot where the officials 
stood is marked by a big brass plate. Lafayette, as the city's 
guest in 1825, had his quarters in the Cabildo. 

On the other side of the cathedral is a building similar 
in appearance to the Cabildo. It was built by the United 
States as a court building and was used by the Civil Courts 
of the Parish of Orleans up to 19 10. Both the Cabildo and 
the old court building are now used as museums, and the 
Louisiana Historical Society has done much in aiding in their 
proper fitting up. 

Jackson Square occupies the square of ground in front 
of the cathedral. It was laid out by Bienville in 1720 and 
known as the Place d'Armes. It has been closely identified 
with the history of the city for nearly two hundred years, 
and one of the most romantic incidents connected with it 
was the reception given the Acadians who were driven out 
of Canada by the British. General Jackson was welcomed 
in the square after his victory over the British at Chalmette 
and conducted into the cathedral to the solemn "Te Deum." 
The square was beautified first by Mme. Pontalba, daughter 
of Don Almonaster, who had it laid out French style. In 
1846 the magnificent equestrian statue of General Andrew 
Jackson was placed in the square and the name changed 
from Place d'Armes to Jackson Square. Two long rows of 
three story brick buildings were erected on either side the 
square by Mme. Pontalba in 1849. Her monogram is still 
intact in the iron railings. These buildings were once the 
home of fashionables, but to-day they house for the most 
part foreigners of the lower class. In the central building 
in St. Peter Street Jenny Lind lived while a resident of 
New Orleans. 



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WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 33 

The French Market is just off Jackson Square and 
extends down to Barracks Street. The first market was 
erected on this site by the Spaniards in 1 791 and it remained 
intact until 181 2 when it was destroyed by a hurricane. 
The old structure was replaced by the present meat market 
at a cost of $30,000 in 18 13. In 1822 the vegetable market 
was added and the Bazaar market was not erected until 1872. 
In the rear of the French Market and extending back several 
squares and taking in the area from St. Ann to Barracks 
Street is what is known as Little Italy. Thousands of Italians 
live in this section of the city and some of the tall dingy 
tenements have been the scenes of bloody Mafia crimes and 
Black Hand assassinations. 

All along Chartres Street are buildings with interesting 
histories, among them the old Orleans Hotel, built in 1799, 
and the Strangers' Hotel, erected a few years later. At 514 
Chartres Street the story of the attempt to rescue Napoleon 
from St. Helena is still told by the concierge. It was the 
home of Girod, a wealthy merchant, who, with Dominic You, 
one of Lafitte's pirates, planned to make a sudden dash on 
St. Helena with a swift yacht and bear the imprisoned emperor 
to liberty. Girod fitted the house up magnificently to serve 
as the Emperor's home. The plot fell through when a sailing 
ship brought the news of the Little Corporal's death in 1821. 

Bourbon Street has its famous buildings and the first of 
these structures that attracts attention is the "Old Absinthe 
House," built in 1798, and used as a cafe since 1825. Next 
comes the French Opera House known the world over. It 
was built in 1859 at a cost of Si 18,000. In this theatre 
many of the best known singers have been heard, among 
them Adelina Patti, who was once a member of the company 
performing there, playing a very small part. In the opera 
house are given the annual carnival balls. 

There are old buildings some of them with fine court- 
yards for a considerable distance down Bourbon Street, and 
in St. Peter Street, just off Bourbon, stood Tabary's theatre, 
opened for its first performance in 1791. 

Rampart Street preserves, as it were, the line of defenses 
built around the old city in 1793 by Baron Carondelet, the 
Spanish governor, to protect the town from an attack by 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 35 



the French. The neutral ground on which run the electric cars 
was the moat beyond the city walls. The New Orleans 
Terminal Station, erected a few years ago, is on the site of 
Fort Burgundy which formed the southwestern corner of 
Carondelet's defenses. In Rampart Street stands the 
house of the wealthy banker, Michael Heine, whose daughter 
Alice married the French Due de Richelieu, afterward the 
Prince of Monaco. There are buildings of the attractive 
colonial type in Rampart Street, and beginning at St. Peter 
Street and extending down to St. Anns is the famous Congo 
Square, now Beauregard Square, where the old Voudou rites 
were performed and wild weird revels indulged in. Voudouism 
was brought into New Orleans by the negro slaves, many of 
whom were imported direct from the Congo on slave ships. 
Marie Leveau, a mulatress, was for many years recognized 
as the Voudoo Queen. She had a large alabaster box in 
which the followers of the repulsive cult imagined she kept 
the "Great Zombi," the monstrous serpent whose only food 
was children offered up as sacrifice. Her home was at 1030 
St. Ann Street and the old house was only demolished in 1903. 
Voudouism was at its height in New Orleans during the last 
century and up to a few years ago men and women of the 
sect would gather on the banks of Bayou St. John, near 
Spanish Fort, on St. John's night, June 24, and conduct 
their strange rites. Several of these dances were raided by 
the police who finally broke up the custom. The rites are 
still practised in secret by negroes in the lower part of 
the city. 

Just off Congo Square the sight-seer comes upon the 
modern main pumping station of the new waterworks system. 
This building is on the site of the old Parish Prison, a structure 
for many years identified with the criminal history of the 
city. The Prison was torn down in 1895 when the modern 
prison in Gravier Street was erected. 

CHALMETTE 

Just below the city, and within easy walking distance 
from the car line, is Chalmette, the famous battlefield of New 
Orleans. On this spot, January 8, 181 5, General Jackson, 
with a little over 6,000 soldiers, most of them raw recruits, 





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Chalmette Monument — Site of Battle of New Orleans 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 37 



defeated the English army of 12,000 men under General 
Pakenham. The British soldiers were largely veterans of 
the Peninsula campaign — Wellington's men, who had driven 
the French out of Portugal and Spain. The house in which 
General Pakenham slept the night before the battle stood 
up to a few years ago when it was destroyed by fire. The 
battlefield is marked by a tall obelisk and the front section 
facing the river is taken up by a national cemetery where 
Federal soldiers, killed in the Civil War, are buried. 

IN AND AROUND THE CITY 

No visitor to New Orleans should fail to visit Spanish Fort. 
The fort is reached by a quick and comfortable electric car 
service. The ride is a pleasant one out Canal Street along 
the New Basin Canal and then for a mile or more skirting 
Lake Pontchartrain. The Fort is the city's popular summer 
resort, with beautiful gardens, shade trees, pavilions and 
all forms of attractions. The Fort, whose remains and can- 
non are still to be seen, was erected by the Spaniards toward 
the last part of the seventeenth century. The lake was at 
that time infested by pirates and frequently hostile Indians 
made forays in their war canoes on the farmers, crossing the 
lake from St. Tammany. Just behind the fort are four big 
cypress trees which mark the grave of a Spanish officer 
killed in a duel with an Indian warrior. The fort was 
garrisoned by the Confederates during the Civil War and 
the ancient guns used in driving off several flotillas. On the 
lake shore, several miles to the east of Spanish Fort, the 
village of Milneburg stands. Milneburg is reached by the 
second oldest railroad in the United States. The place is 
full of romantic memories and is now made up largely of 
fishing camps and boat clubs. It was at Milneburg that 
Thackeray, the English novelist, was given a great dinner 
and he w T as so impressed with the Creole cooking that he 
immortalized it in one of his subsequent works. The 
restaurant still stands and a descendant of the chef who 
prepared the Thackeray dinner conducts it. 

West End is located on Lake Pontchartrain a mile or 
two to the west of Spanish Fort. It has a big hotel and 
boasts of a number of boat and yacht clubs. One of the 



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WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 39 



principal clubs is the Southern Yacht Club, which has a fine 
fleet of vessels of every type and class known to the sport 
of sailing. 

PARKS 

City Park is one of the famous beauty spots of the South. 
Bienville made his first landing at City Park, coming up 
Bayou St. John from Lake Pontchartrain in his little 
barque, the "Bonaventure." In the old colonial days many 
of the aristocrats built their villas in the park and the place 
did not become a public pleasure ground until the Americans 
had charge. The park is laid out in most imposing and 
orderly style. In its center is a large lake and lagoons extend- 
ing from the lake intersect the woodland reaches and bower- 
lined w r alk. Only recently a magnificent Art Gallery, built 
on the plan of a Grecian temple, was erected in the park. 
Just in the rear of the Art Gallery, on the northern shore of 
an arm of the lake, is situated the Peristylium, which bears 
a close resemblance to an ancient pile on the hills of the 
Acropolis at Athens. 

The park was the duelling ground of old New Orleans, 
and the great oak still stands under whose protecting shade 
many of the sanguinary combats were fought. Mr. Wagga- 
man, a United States Senator, whose name is borne by a little 
village just across from New Orleans on the Jefferson Parish 
bank of the Mississippi River, was killed with rapiers in an 
encounter with Denis Prieur, afterwards mayor of the city, 
one Sunday morning under the oaks, and on the same day ten 
duels were fought on the spot. There were many well-known 
maitres d'armes in New Orleans in those days and fencing 
was an art with all the gallants. The masters themselves 
fought to the death and Marcel Dauphin, who formerly oper- 
ated a "salle d'armes" near the Bastille, in Paris, and fled to 
America during the Red Terror, was one of those whose heart 
was pierced by the sword point of a rival teacher, Bonneval, 
an ex- Jacobin, and personal friend of the "Sea Green Incor- 
ruptible" Robespierre. One of the best known of the'Ante- 
Bellum fencing masters was Pepe Lula, the Spaniard, who is 
said to have fought over thirty duels in the park. He issued 
a sweeping challenge to all sympathizers with the Cubans 
in one of the earlier rebellions and killed three antagonists 



S'l .'f./\W 



The Famous Dueling Oak in City Park, and AHard's Tomb 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 41 



who tried to break down his masterly sword guard. Pepe 
Lula in his declining years turned his private grounds into 
a graveyard. That graveyard to-day is known as St. Vincent 
de Paul's Cemetery, having come into the possession of the 
Catholic Church congregation of that name. 

A large part of the park was originally owned by Louis 
Allard, the planter, and Allard's tomb is to be seen to-day 
in the picturesque place near the dueling oak, its somber 
front half hidden by rose bushes. 

Behind the city park are the two great race tracks, one 
the Fair Grounds, and the other known as the New Orleans 
Jockey Club. These parks are now used only for picnics 
and open-air entertainments, the Legislature of 1908 having 
put the ban on horse racing. 

Audubon Park is another spot of imposing beauty. It 
is situated in the upper part of the city and is surrounded 
on three sides by the residential section of splendid mansions. 
The park covers 247 acres and takes its name from Audubon, 
the great naturalist. It originally belonged to Masan, the 
French patriot who had his plantation there. He was con- 
demned to ten years' imprisonment in Morro Castle, Havana. 
for resisting the ceding of the colony to Spain. The park 
was the site for the Cotton States Exposition in 1885-86, 
and the magnificent Horticultural Hall, all of glass, erected 
for the exposition, still stands. The park has oak trees 
representing the highest type of their class. In the park 
Audubon did much of his work as a naturalist and recently 
his monument was erected near the Horticultural Hall. 

There are a number of smaller parks in the city used 
for picnics and pleasure parties. 

RESIDENTIAL SECTIONS 

St. Charles Avenue is the street of fine homes, and the 
thoroughfares intersecting it above Jackson Avenue also 
possess an attractive array of residences. There are mansions 
in St. Charles Avenue that might well rank as palaces and 
opening into the street are a number of residence parks 
where costly houses, surrounded by great gardens, are 
grouped into charming pictures. 

Esplanade Street also has its stately homes. It is the 
street of the aristocratic French families and extends from 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 43 

the river to Bayou St. John. Below Esplanade Street, in what 
is known as the Third District, is the residential section of 
small houses. Most of the streets are well paved, affording 
smooth roads for automobiles and other vehicles. 

Canal Street in the rear of Claiborne ; Carrollton Avenue 
practically a new thoroughfare; City Park Avenue and lower 
St. Claude Street afford great beauty in charming vistas, 
ample room and lots of air, as attractions to the residents. 

THE CEMETERIES 

New Orleans has always been considered a peculiar city 
in regard to the burying of its dead. Efecause °f the moisture 
of the soil it was the custom up to a generation ago to inter 
the dead in tombs, or what was known as ovens — small, 
narrow crypts built out from a solid brick wall. That 
custom is now no longer followed. 

Metairie Cemetery takes rank with the richest burying 
grounds in the country. It contains many costly mausoleums 
and at the entrance surmounting the tomb of the Army of 
Tennessee is a great equestrian statue of General Albert Sidney 
Johnston, the Confederate commander killed at Shiloh. The 
Washington Artillery Monument to the Confederacy is 
also in this cemetery. The cemetery parallels a pretty lake. 
The entire plot was once a race track. 

Greenwood Cemetery is just across the new canal from 
Metairie. At the entrance is a monument to the Confederate 
dead, with four marble shafts supporting the busts of General 
Robert E. Lee, General Albert Sidney Johnston and General 
Leonidas Polk. Close to Greenwood, is the Firemen's Ceme- 
tery and the other burying grounds near by are the three — 
St. Patrick's, the Dispersed of Judah and the Masonic 
Cemetery. 

The old St. Louis cemeteries are in North Basin Street 
and Claiborne Avenue. These are historic burying grounds 
and an interesting day one may spend among the old tombs 
and ovens studying the inscriptions. These cemeteries 
which are the oldest in the city were laid out by 
Bienville and many of the noted men and women of colonial 
times lie sleeping there. Among the most famous of 
those buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 might be 
mentioned Charles Benoist de La Salle, a brother of the 




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WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 45 



great explorer who made the first voyage down the 
Mississippi River; Benedict Van Preebles, an officer in the 
Revolutionary Army under the Marquis de Lafayette. 
On a number of the marble slabs facing the tombs and ovens 
this strange inscription will be found : ' ' Mort sur le Champ 
d'Honneur," indicating the last resting-place of some gentle- 
man of the old-time who was slain in a duel. In the rear of 
the cemetery, beyond a board fence separating the consecrated 
from the unconsecrated ground, will be found the original 
monument erected to the memory of General Claiborne, the 
first American governor of Louisiana. The little section of 
unconsecrated ground was for the interment of Protestants. 
New St. Louis Cemetery is located in Esplanade Street near 
Bayou St. John. It dates back to the last century and one 
of its unique monuments is to the memory of Father Turgis, 
the devoted soldier priest. The monument was erected to 
the heroic clergyman's memory by the Army of Northern 
Virginia Camp of Confederate Veterans. 

No one comes to New Orleans without a visit to St. 
Roch's Cemetery. St. Roch's Shrine is known as the miracle 
chapel for it is said that many wonderful cures have taken 
place at its altar. The chapel was built by Father Thevis 
in fulfillment of a vow. He laid the stones in place himself, 
and soon everybody flocked to see the wonderful shrine in 
honor of St. Roch, the patron of health. A statue of St. Roch 
and his dog surmount the shrine. Every morning the bell 
in the belfry is tolled following an old Hungarian custom. 
There are many tombs and graves in St. Roch's. 

Among the interesting cemeteries down town are 
Louisa Street Cemetery, Hebrew Rest and St. Vincent de 
Paul's. Of the up-town cemeteries the burying grounds 
along Washington Street are the best known. Girod Street 
Cemetery has an interesting history. It was the first Protes- 
tant burying ground in New Orleans and took the name of 
its founder, Nicholas Girod, the wealthy merchant who 
planned with Dominic You, the pirate, to rescue Napoleon 
from St. Helena. Mr. Girod was himself a Protestant and 
established the cemetery, as Protestants back at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century were buried in unconsecrated 
ground in the rear of St. Louis Cemetery. 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 47 



MONUMENTS 

New Orleans has many monuments but perhaps the 
most imposing is that to General Robert E. Lee, the great 
Confederate Commander in Chief, which stands at the head 
of St. Charles Avenue. The statue is of bronze and rests on 
a column one hundred and six feet high. 

Where Camp and Prytania streets converge, just two 
squares from Lee monument, is the statue erected in memory 
of Margaret Haughery, a well-known woman philanthropist. 
This is said to be the first and one of a very few lasting testi- 
monials given by a grateful people to the memory of a woman. 

New Orleans is soon to have another statue of one of 
the city's famous women. The statue is to be erected in 
honor of Sophie B. Wright, a devoted Christian worker who, 
although a cripple, labored unceasingly for the happiness of 
others, especially friendless girls. 

The monument of Henry Clay stands in Lafayette 
Square. In front of the square is a bronze bust of John 
M'Donogh, the philanthropist of New Orleans and Baltimore, 
who left a fortune to build the city's public schools. 

The statue of Benjamin Franklin, in white marble, 
formerly stood in Lafayette Square, but several years ago 
it was removed to the great marble hall of the Public Library. 

A marble bust of Gottschalk, the famous pianist, who 
was born in New Orleans, is also in the Public Library. 

The statue of General P. G. T. Beauregard, the brave 
Confederate commanding officer, will stand at the Bayou 
St. John Gate of the City Park. General Beauregard, who 
commanded the Confederates in the great victory at Bull 
Run, was born in New Orleans. 

UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 

Tulane University occupies a broad site facing St. Charles 
Avenue, opposite Audubon Park. There are many fine 
buildings in the reservation, including a medical laboratory 
where some of the greatest discoveries of modern times have 
been made by the skilled scientists in charge of the work. 

Newcomb College is a leading institution of learning 
for young girls under the same general direction as Tulane 
University. The college is now in Washington Avenue but 




Lee Lircie and Monument, St. Charles Avenue 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 4Q 

is to be built on a grander and more imposing scale in the 
rear of Napoleon Avenue. 

Loyola University adjoins Tulane. It is conducted by 
the Jesuit Fathers, and the buildings are among the most 
attractive in the city, being built on the architectural plan 
of the old English abbeys. 

In Nashville Avenue, only a short distance from Loyola, 
the new Ursulines Convent has been erected. These buildings 
are Gothic and old English. The Ursulines formerly had 
their convent where young ladies were educated in one of the 
city's ancient buildings down on the river front. The building 
had to give place to a new levee line and the sisters bought 
the site up-town. 

The Jesuits have a fine college in Baronnc Street, near 
Canal, in the very center of the business district. The 
building is of Moorish type and adjoins the Church of the 
Immaculate Conception. 

MODERN NEW ORLEANS 

The new city is of course above Canal Street, and the 
great jobbing center is in Canal Street, while the wholesale 
district includes nearly all the streets close to the river 
from Canal to Julia streets. In this district there are a number 
of big manufacturing plants. The office-building section from 
Camp to Baronne streets, is dotted with tall skyscrapers and 
modern structures. In this section are located the Cotton 
Exchange, Stock Exchange, Board of Trade, Contractor's 
Exchange, Real Estate Exchange and most of the banks. 
The Sugar Exchange is below Canal Street close to the 
levee, where the sugar is landed at the publicly-owned docks. 
The streets are paved and there is an air of activity evident 
during every season of the year. New .Orleans, while the 
greatest sugar market, is also one of the greatest rice and 
coffee markets, and the docks are always lined with ships 
discharging and taking on cargoes. 

CHURCHES AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 
Christ Church Cathedral, Protestant Episcopal, stands 

in one of the prettiest portions of St. Charles Avenue at the 

intersection of Sixth Street. 

The First Baptist Church, constructed of stone, is further 

up the avenue and presents an imposing appearance. A 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 5 1 



few blocks above this is Rayne Memorial Methodist Church 

and lower down the avenue is the costly and stately looking 
First Methodist Church. 

One of the most attractive buildings in the avenue is 
the Touro Synagogue, with its circular bronze roof. Temple 
Sinai, constructed on the plan of ancient Jewish houses of 
worship, is in Carondelet Street further down town. 

Prytania Street Presbyterian Church is a massive struc- 
ture of stone, in Prytania Street, a block from St. Charles 
Avenue. The First Presbyterian Church, which faces 
Lafayette Square, is one of the oldest of the Protestant 
churches in the city. 

A recent addition to architectural New Orleans is the 
Mater Dolorosa Catholic Church, in Carrollton Avenue. 
The catholics have many other fine churches in the city. 

The Christian Scientists have only a small church of 
frame construction facing Coliseum Park, but have pur- 
chased ground in an exclusive section of the city and intend 
to build a large and costly church. 

The City Hall is a building that impresses one at the 
first glance. It is built after the Grecian plan, with wide 
portico and massive columns supporting the arched roof. 

The Public Library ranks with the finest in the United 
States. It is built of stone and marble and the architects 
copied the designed of the Temple of Mars in Rome. 

The Criminal Court and Police Service Building in 
Tulane Avenue is of red brick and reminds one of an old 
French chateau. The Parish prison, in the rear of this struc- 
ture, is built of brick, with inner steel casings, making the 
cells mob proof. 

The New Court House Building, already referred to, 
covers a square of ground in what is known as the "Vieux 
Carre," and was only recently completed. 

The House of Detention is another great prison, built 
of brick, with steel cells and corridors. 

The Charity Hospital accommodates the sick of practically 
all the city and state and from the neighboring states as 
well. It was founded in 1832 and has been steadily added 
to until it now covers four squares. 

Among the private hospitals are the Hotel Dieu, Touro 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 53 



Infirmary, Presbyterian Hospital, Water Cure and Bethany 
Home. 

A unique institution is the Confederate Veterans' Home, 
out on Bayou St. John. The old veterans wear uniforms of 
grey and lead a happy care-free life. 

ALGIERS 

Algiers is the Fifth District of New Orleans and lies on 
the west bank of the river. In old Creole days it was one of 
the royal plantations and negro slaves gave it the name of 
Algiers, as it struck them as resembling a portion of the 
northern African coast. 

M'DONOGHVILLE AND GRETNA 

M'Donoghville and Gretna lie just above Algiers and 
are in the Parish of Jefferson. M'Donoghville was the planta- 
tion of John M'Donogh, the eccentric philanthropist. Gretna 
is the home of many factories and the Southern Pacific has 
big railroad terminals in the place. Gretna was the scene of 
many bloody riots in the old reconstruction days. 

THE CARNIVAL 

The Carnival in New Orleans is not only marvelous 
for its richness and beauty, but it is a season when people 
of all classes enter into the spirit of fun and frolic, throw care 
to the winds, and yield themselves willing subjects to the 
gentle rule of King Rex. Parades that cost thousands of 
dollars are featured for several days ; magnificent balls, where 
the social leaders and distinguished people of all parts of the 
country assemble, and a great day when maskers claim the 
streets, make up the season, and give it a touch of splendor 
found no where else in the world. Thousands of strangers 
come to the city each year for the carnival and those who 
have participated in the season once generally return to 
enjoy its pleasures again. 

The Carnival season properly begins twelve nights after 
Christmas with the ball of the Twelfth Night Revellers and 
other exclusive organizations give their revels on stated 
nights to the Monday before Lent. On that Monday, King 




Mardi Gras Pageant, Canal Street 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 55 



Rex arrives with royal magnificence on a big flotilla made 
up of war ships ancl all types of river craft. He parades the 
streets in a golden car followed by soldiers, marines, blue- 
jackets and the lords and dukes of the realm in rich costume. 
The same night Proteus appears in the streets, coming out 
of the sea, with a brilliant pageant of from eighteen to twenty 
cars. Proteus concludes his parade with one of the great 
balls of the year at the French Opera House. 

The next day is Mardi Gras day — Fat Tuesday is the 
English of the name — and from early morning until dusk, 
maskers, who tax their ingenuity to find costumes striking 
and distinct, are in the streets. Rex's parade of dazzling 
cars is given Mardi Gras day and the maskers throw to the 
crowds in the streets handsome souvenirs and trinkets of 
less value. The day concludes with the pageant and ball of 
Comus, and the pageant is generally one of the grandest of 
the season. At the ball at the French Opera House, Rex 
and Comus, with their beautiful queens, reign together. 

The first parade is given by the Krewe of Momus, 
Thursday night before Mardi Gras. This parade is always 
one of the events of the season and is followed by a ball at 
the French Opera House. 

The Twelfth Night Revellers, as was previously stated, 
open the Carnival season with a ball twelve nights after 
Christmas. The second ball is given by the Krewe of Nereus, 
and in order come the Olympians, the High Priests of Mithras, 
the Elves of Oberon, the Atlanteans, the Krewe of Mystery, 
Momus, Proteus, Comus and Rex. The Rex ball given 
Mardi Gras night, is the people's ball, while Comus, like the 
other organizations mentioned, gives the exclusive revel. 
Each organization has its king and queen, and while the 
identity of the king, at all the balls, with the exception of 
Rex, is kept a close secret, the queens are announced on the 
nights of their reign and are selected from the year's debutantes 
generally for their charm and beauty. Rex and his lady 
are king and queen of the entire Carnival. The Mittens organ- 
ization is composed of young society ladies who give a stately 
revel and reverse the order of things by choosing from 
society's popular young men a king and publicly crowning 



WINTER IN NEW ORLEANS 57 



him. The carnival has been celebrated in New Orleans since 
the early thirties, but the first parade was not given until 
1837. Comus is the oldest of the present organizations and 
was formed in 1857. While the smaller organizations give 
no parades, their revels at the French Opera House are made 
up of gorgeous tableaux. The organizations are of a most 
secret character and the members of the Krewes work for 
months in preparing their subjects. Until the day of the 
parade and ball the subject for the display is not made public. 

CLUBS 

The leading clubs of the city arc the Pickwick, Boston, 
Chess-Checkers and Whist, and Louisiana, in Canal Street; 
the Young Men's Gymnastic, in North Rampart Street; the 
Harmony and the Young Men's Hebrew, in St. Charles 
Avenue. The latter organization owns the Athenaeum and 
the quarters arc the largest and best appointed of any He- 
brew organization in the United States. 

SIDE TRIPS 

The Southern Pacific Railroad from New Orleans runs 
through one of the richest sugar and rice countries in the 
world, and cheap rates prevail on excursion days. Within 
a few hours of New Orleans, on the Southern Pacific, is the 
romantic Bayou Teche Country, with Acadian villages dotting 
its oaked-linccl banks. St. Martin ville, one of the oldest towns 
in the state, is included in the trip, and the Teche winds by the 
ancient place. High on the bank, beneath a giant oak tree, is 
the grave of Evangeline and the villagers delight in showing 
strangers where Longfellow's heroine sleeps. In this section 
are many interesting Indian relics and old buildings which 
were erected in the days of the French and Spanish rule. 

SEA TRIP TO NEW YORK 

Many of the tourists who visit New Orleans in the win- 
ter take advantage of the opportunity offered for the return to 
New York by the sea route. The palatial steamships of the 
Southern Pacific have regular sailings between New Orleans 
and New York and all seasons of the year the trip is delight- 
ful. The vessels make a daylight run down the great river 




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WINTER IN NE W ORLEA NS 5 9 



to the Gulf and on either side the famous Delta spreads out 
like a panorama before the eyes of the passengers and the 
famous Eads jetties, which required so much engineering 
skill in the building, are also seen. 

The Southern Pacific also runs a fine line of steamers to 
Havana, only two days' sail from New Orleans, and this is 
a favorite trip with visitors, especially in the winter season. 

Restaurants 

Above Canal Street 

Brasco's — 720 Gravier Street. 

De Soto Restaurant — Hotel De Soto. 

Fabacher's Rathskeller — 414 St. Charles Street. 

Grunewald Restaurant — Grunewald Hotel. 

Kolb's German Tavern — 125 St. Charles Street. 

Maylie's — -1001 Poydras Street; dinner for gentlemen, 6 P. M. 

Reno's — 728 Gravier Street. 

St. Charles Restaurant — St. Charles Hotel. 

The Cave — Grunewald Hotel. 

The Italian Garden — St. Charles Hotel. 

The Old Hickory — 306 Carondelet Street. 

Restaurants 

Below Canal Street 

("Vieux Carre") 
Antoine's — 713 St. Louis Street. 
Begue's — 823 Decatur Street; breakfast at 11 only. 
Fabacher's — Royal and Iberville streets. 
Galatoire's — 209 Bourbon Street. 
Janssen's — -124 Royal Street. 
La Louisiane — 717 Iberville Street. 
Monteleone Restaurant — Monteleone Hotel. 
The Gem — 127 Royal Street. 

Railroad Depots 

Union Station — Rampart Street and Howard Avenue — -Southern Pacific, 

Illinois Central, Yazoo and Mississippi Valley and Texas and Pacific. 
New Orleans Terminal Station — Canal and North Basin streets — Frisco 

Queen and Crescent, New Orleans Great Northern and Louisiana 

Railway and Navigation Company. 
Louisville and Nashville Depot — head of Canal Street — Louisville and 

Nashville and Pontchartrain R. R. 
New Orleans, Fort Jackson and Grand Isle Depot — Algiers near Canal 

Street Ferry house — New Orleans, Fort Jackson and Grande Isle. 
Louisiana Southern Depot — St. Claude and Elysian Fields — Louisiana 

Southern (Frisco). 




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